[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 282 Engrossed in House (EH)]


H. Res. 282

                 In the House of Representatives, U.S.,

                                                          June 7, 2005.
Whereas the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that 
        ``the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all members 
        of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in 
        the world'';
Whereas United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 (1975) concluded that 
        ``Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination'' and the 
        General Assembly, by a vote of 111 to 25, only revoked Resolution 3379 
        in 1991 in response to strong leadership by the United States and after 
        Israel made its participation in the Madrid Peace Conference conditional 
        upon repeal of the resolution;
Whereas during the 1991 session of the United Nations Commission on Human 
        Rights, the Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations repeated the 
        outrageous ``blood libel'' that Jews allegedly have killed non-Jewish 
        children to make unleavened bread for Passover and, despite repeated 
        interventions by the Governments of Israel and the United States, this 
        outrageous lie was not corrected in the record of the Commission for 
        many months;
Whereas in March 1997, the Palestinian observer at the United Nations Commission 
        on Human Rights made the contemptible charge that the Government of 
        Israel had injected 300 Palestinian children with HIV (the human 
        immunodeficiency virus, the pathogen that causes AIDS) despite the fact 
        that an Egyptian newspaper had printed a full retraction to its earlier 
        report of the same charges, and the President of the Commission failed 
        to challenge this baseless and false accusation despite the request of 
        the Government of Israel that he do so;
Whereas Israel was denied membership in any regional grouping of the United 
        Nations until the year 2000, which prevented it from being a candidate 
        for any elected positions within the United Nations system until that 
        time, and Israel continues to be denied the opportunity to hold a 
        rotating seat on the Security Council and it is the only member of the 
        United Nations never to have served on the Security Council although it 
        has been a member of the organization for 56 years;
Whereas Israel continues to be denied the opportunity to serve as a member of 
        the United Nations Commission on Human Rights because it has never been 
        included in a slate of candidates submitted by a regional grouping, and 
        Israel is currently the only member of the Western and Others Group in a 
        conditional status limiting its ability to caucus with its fellow 
        members of this regional grouping;
Whereas the United Nations has permitted itself to be used as a battleground for 
        political warfare against Israel led by Arab states and others, and 6 of 
        the 10 emergency sessions of the United Nations General Assembly have 
        been devoted to criticisms of and attacks against Israel;
Whereas the goals of the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism 
        were undermined by hateful anti-Jewish rhetoric and anti-Israel 
        political agendas, prompting both Israel and the United States to 
        withdraw their delegations from the Conference;
Whereas in 2004, the United Nations Secretary General acknowledged at the first 
        United Nations-sponsored conference on anti-Semitism, that: ``It is 
        clear that we are witnessing an alarming resurgence of this phenomenon 
        in new forms and manifestations. This time, the world must not--cannot--
        be silent.'';
Whereas in 2004, the United Nations General Assembly's Third Committee for the 
        first time adopted a resolution on religious tolerance that includes 
        condemnation of anti-Semitism and ``recognized with deep concern the 
        overall rise in instances of intolerance and violence directed against 
        members of many religious communities . . . including . . . anti-
        Semitism . . . '';
Whereas in 2005, the United Nations held an unprecedented session to commemorate 
        the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration 
        camp;
Whereas democratic Israel is annually the object of nearly two dozen redundantly 
        critical resolutions in the United Nations General Assembly, which 
        rarely adopts resolutions relating to specific countries; and
Whereas the viciousness with which Israel is attacked and discriminated against 
        at the United Nations should not be allowed to continue unchallenged: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved,  That--
            (1) the House of Representatives--
                    (A) welcomes recent attempts by the United Nations 
                Secretary General to address the issue of anti-
                Semitism;
                    (B) calls on the United Nations to officially and 
                publicly condemn anti-Semitic statements made at all 
                United Nations meetings and hold accountable United 
                Nations member states that make such statements; and
                    (C) strongly urges the United Nations Educational, 
                Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to 
                develop and implement education awareness programs 
                about the Holocaust throughout the world as part of an 
                effort to combat the rise in anti-Semitism and racial, 
                religious, and ethnic intolerance; and
            (2) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that--
                    (A) the President should direct the United States 
                Permanent Representative to the United Nations to 
                continue working toward further reduction of anti-
                Semitic language and anti-Israel resolutions;
                    (B) the President should direct the Secretary of 
                State to include in the Department of State's annual 
                Country Reports on Human Rights Practices and annual 
                Report on International Religious Freedom information 
                on activities at the United Nations and its constituent 
                bodies relating to anti-Semitism by each of the 
                countries included in these reports; and
                    (C) the President should direct the Secretary of 
                State to use projects funded through the Middle East 
                Partnership Initiative and United States overseas 
                broadcasts to educate Arab and Muslim countries about 
                anti-Semitism, religious intolerance, and incitement to 
                violence.

            Attest:

                                                                 Clerk.